Shutter Island | Paperback

I saw the film - which I loved - before I read the book, but after reading that the book was written by the same author as the acclaimed Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River, I was curious to check Dennis Lehane out as an author and started with Shutter Island.

It is very stylish and fast-paced, jumping straight into it and never really stopping, throwing in a few elements that shouldn't really be compatible but somehow go together; the fantasy dream sequence elements against the gritty detective mystery and the pyschology of the inmates and the cut-off-from-the-rest-of-the-world atmosphere creates a great tension, with the lead character's characteristics and backstory given in little snippets along the way of the never-stopping-for-a-second plot.

I read this book in a week and believe me most of that week - including my time at work - were spent reading this book, and as a bathroom reader, I found excuses to take it to the toilet with me which caused my girlfriend concern… more »

I saw the film - which I loved - before I read the book, but after reading that the book was written by the same author as the acclaimed Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River, I was curious to check Dennis Lehane out as an author and started with Shutter Island.

It is very stylish and fast-paced, jumping straight into it and never really stopping, throwing in a few elements that shouldn't really be compatible but somehow go together; the fantasy dream sequence elements against the gritty detective mystery and the pyschology of the inmates and the cut-off-from-the-rest-of-the-world atmosphere creates a great tension, with the lead character's characteristics and backstory given in little snippets along the way of the never-stopping-for-a-second plot.

I read this book in a week and believe me most of that week - including my time at work - were spent reading this book, and as a bathroom reader, I found excuses to take it to the toilet with me which caused my girlfriend concern at how much time I was spending in the bathroom when my toilet trips became almost hourly and for sometimes as long as an hour and my bathtub-reading escapades clocked in at excesses of two and a half hours some nights but I couldn't put it down.

The style is slick and swift, the direction almost film-like and the dialogue very driven, you can hear it as it literally speaks off the page to you and the prose are never too much or too little; the film is very faithful to the book - save for one or two extended dream sequences, a few extra snippets about Teddy and his wife's relationship and how they met and an extended sequence with Teddy and the island's warden - and thank God, as the book is so damn near perfect anyway. An awesome book, a definite recommendation to any reading enthusiast.